This invention relates to a rack and pinion steering gear for an automotive vehicle.
The rack and pinion steering gear disclosed herein includes an arrangement which yieldably maintains the rack in meshing engagement with the pinion. Because a rack and pinion steering apparatus is subjected to road stresses, the rattling effect of these stresses sometimes causes the pinion to become separated from the rack a very small amount, thereby changing the steering "feel" of the vehicle operator. Such a condition is obviously undesirable, and many arrangements have been suggested in the past to maintain the rack and pinion in meshing engagement. The arrangement disclosed in this application solves this problem in a better and a more cost-effective way than the apparatus known to the prior art.
The invention disclosed herein also includes a novel bearing arrangement which supports the pinion for rotation. This pinion bearing arrangement not only accounts for an axial thrust to which the pinion shaft is subjected when it is in use in a motor vehicle, but it is also designed so that substantially the same components may be used in both the manual rack and pinion steering gear disclosed herein, and the power rack and pinion steering gear, disclosed in copending application Ser. No. 642,280, filed Dec. 19, 1975, owned by the assigned of the present invention and incorporated herein by reference. The rack, the pinion, the housing, and the bearings are common to both the manual and the power rack and pinion mechanisms, and only a few additional components, such as a rotary valve and a manifolding fluid motor arrangement, need be added to the basic manual design in order to provide a power assist capability.